Left with nothing after the sudden demise of her impecunious performer father, bright-eyed and optimistic Aliki arrives in faceless Athens, along with her only companion: the ink-black poodle, Arapis. Not knowing what to expect, Aliki shows up at the front door of the compassionate, and very pregnant, matriarch, Amalia, who gladly takes her in; however, life can be hard when you're a stranger in a strange land. Now, to eke out an existence, Aliki has to slip into her father's crowd-pleasing outfit and put on a show as
Charles Chaplin's tyrant in
El gran dictador (1940). But, against the backdrop of intolerable financial and social hardship, love finds a way. Could Petros, the kindly blind philosophy student, be the personification of hope?
—Nick Riganas